100-year-old avante garde writer, painter, costume designer, choreographer, and dancer (Yes, dancer) Eileen Kramer* shows no signs of stopping or even slowing down.

*No relation, alas.

Born in 1914, she was unhappy with traditional school, and instead enrolled herself in the Conservatorium of Music where she studied voice and dreamed of becoming an opera singer. Then at the age of 24, Ms. Kramer saw her first ballet, a performance by Australia’s first modern dance company, Bodenwieser Viennese Dance Company, and everything changed. She immediately switched to the newly-formed Bodenwieser school of dance. Three years later, she was dancing with the company, and she has been working in theater, dance, and art, wearing one hat or another, ever since.

When I hit the internet to research Ms. Kramer, wonderful stories abounded. Here’s one of my favorites:

“Several years ago . . . a car driven by a drunken driver ran head-on into her little cottage, knocking her staircase away from the wall and trapping her upstairs. She was rescued by a large, muscular fireman, on whose knee she sat waiting, and to whom she said in a little bitty voice, “Oh, am I hurting you?” When the headline was in the local paper, it said “92-year-old Woman Rescued”. She told me she wasn’t happy with the headline, and I thought perhaps it was because it revealed her age, of which we were still speculating. She said, “No, it should have said ‘92-year-old DANCER’!” – Susanna Robinson Kenga for LBSPY.com

One of my pet peeves is people who write autobiographies when they’re still very young. However, you would think that writing one at the age of 94 was a pretty safe bet, right? Not for Eileen. She published her autobiography, “Walkabout Dancer,” in 2008, but she forgot to stop doing interesting things. In 2014, Eileen, who had been living in the U.S. for about 20 years, got homesick and returned to Australia.

“I wanted to hear a kookaburra. I wanted to smell a gumtree.”

The first thing she did when she got back was to choreograph and perform in the music video for Lacey Cole’s “Nephilim’s Lament.”

And she didn’t stop there. Eileen is teaching and choreographing again, and she’s currently raising money to produce a new ballet, “The Early Ones.”

If you find yourself moved to contribute to the production (as I did), you will no doubt be pleased to know you will also be helping to keep Eileen off the streets. She’s currently living in a hostel for people at risk of homelessness. A true free spirit until the end, it seems.

Many thanks to Gail for spotting this amazing artist and bringing her to my attention!